In a lot of ways Charley Boorman was the inspiration for my novel Tail of the Dragon. My son-in-law, Paul is from England and made me aware of Boorman’s infamous Long Way Round, and Long Way Down television series featuring mammoth motorcycle rides around the world and across Europe to the tip of South Africa with his acting friend Ewan McGregor. Recently my friend Ron Johnston ran into Charley as he came to the Tail of the Dragon to ride it at night in the rain. For a man who has literally rode a motorcycle around the world his Tail of the Dragon ride was appropriate. Charley had spoken to Ron and his wife who runs the Tail of the Dragon store at Deal’s Gap, (CLICK TO REVIEW) 5 years prior in Toronto at an event and remembered the correspondence enough to visit them when he was near the area. It was after this meeting with Ron that I learned about Charlie’s next plan for a motorcycle documentary called Long Way Up, where he plans to ride with McGregor from the tip of South America all the way up to the tip of Alaska. For a number of years now, my son-in-law and I have been looking for a way to fund a very similar motorcycle adventure from the tip of Alaska to the bottom of South America largely because of Charley and Ewan’s adventures which we loved. For me that passion moved from several long road trips of my own which then became the plot for my novel Tail of the Dragon.
Boorman was not new to the Tail of the Dragon area. When he was 8 years old he spent some time just to the south when his father was filming Deliverance on the Chattooga River. The plot of that famous adventure film was three Atlanta businessmen were intent on seeing the fictional Cahulawassee River before it was turned into one huge lake. Outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they’ll never forget into the dangerous American back-country. The Chattooga River (also spelled Chatooga, Chatuga, and Chautaga, variant name Guinekelokee River) is the main tributary of the Tugaloo River. Its headwaters are located southwest of Cashiers, North Carolina, and it stretches 57 miles (92 km)[1] to where it has its confluence with the Tallulah River within Lake Tugalo, held back by the Tugalo Dam. The Chattooga and the Tallulah combine to make the Tugaloo River starting at the outlet of Lake Tugalo. The Chattooga begins in southern Jackson County, North Carolina, then flows southwestward between northwestern Oconee County, South Carolina, and eastern Rabun County, Georgia. Charley’s father directed the film with brutal honesty and a sense of adventure that has never been duplicated and is a film classic. But Deliverance isn’t the only film shot in the area. Hollywood is well acquainted with the Tail of the Dragon.
To those coming from the North Carolina side, the Dragon begins at Fugitive Bridge with a view of the Cheoah Dam where Harrison Ford jumped in the movie The Fugitive. It ends 14 miles across the mountain at the Tabcat Creek Bridge in Tennessee. From Fugitive Dam US129 climbs through The Slide, a steep series of “S” curves where one would not want to meet one of the tractor-trailers that comes this way at times. The road then levels and straightens until a series of curves approaching the Crossroads of Time, one of the main hangouts for visitors. Next is Deals Gap and the Tennessee State Line. For the next eleven miles most people just remember curve after curve after curve and the run of their lives.
In addition to the 1993 The Fugitive, three other movies have been filmed along this road. The first feature film made on US 129 was Thunder Road. This 1958 Robert Mitchum film about backwoods moonshining had scenes at the power line easement at about mile 4.5 on the Dragon map and you can see the old wooden “safety” posts on the corner. A few of the posts still remain.
Part of the 1971 classic movie Two-Lane Blacktop was filmed on the Dragon. There are scenes of the state line sign, some of the curves, the old Esso Gas Station, Crafton’s Motel and Café, along the Little Tennessee River and the original single lane bridge at Tapoco Dam. These scenes are at the end of the movie. Then there was In Dreams (1998) with Annette Bening which was filmed on Moonshiner 28, Tapoco Dam and Calderwood Dam.
http://tailofthedragon.com/dragon_history_story.html
Charlie’s love of adventure would become a global endeavor and began with a father who directed one of the greatest adventure films of all time in the mysterious land which became the modern-day Tail of the Dragon that is synonymous with classic Hollywood adventure films. So it was a bit of a book end that he would return to that area after all his globe-trotting escapades to see my friends Ron and Nancy Johnston at their Tail of the Dragon store. In that store Ron has on the wall the story of how Deliverance was filmed in the area prompting Charlie to autograph it for all visitors to see in the future. When I came up with the kind of personality that became Rick Stevens in the novel Tail of the Dragon I thought often of people like Charlie Boorman, but were not as fortunate as Charlie to be born into the entertainment industry where eccentricities can be openly explored. Boorman has had opportunities that many men struggle to gain and he has not squandered them. My character of Rick Stevens is one of those types who has the adventurous soul of a Charlie Boorman without the Hollywood connections to allow him to embark on such grand adventures. Rick Stevens because of his limited options takes the first opportunity that came his way—a political coup between governors in a run for President of The United States. Adventurers always find a way and don’t uses excuses as a crutch.
My son-in-law and I are still planning our trip from Alaska to the bottom tip of South America but if Charlie beats me to it more power to him. I will enjoy his wonderful documentaries on the subject as I have enjoyed all his work. Doing my own share of long distance hard riding, and riding a motorcycle every day even in snow, heavy rain and below freezing temperatures I have a grand appreciation for the work that Charlie and his friend Ewan have done for the sport of marathon motorcycle riding. Charlie Boorman is the kind of man I wish there were many more of, a kind man, a passionate man, but more than anything a man who plays at life-like a kid yet with the intellect of an adult. He is the kind of man who every young child should hope to grow up and become.
Rich Hoffman
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